Authors

Berniz Constanza Terpstra works in a public school, coordinating services for students and families. Berniz graduated from Calvin College and lives with her husband Aaron in Grand Rapids. She attends Madison Square Church, loves her dog, and bakes amazing cupcakes.

Israel Cooper is a recent graduate of the University of Western Ontario and triathlete. Endurance sports are her thing, and she loves pushing her body to do new things in sport. The journey you go on in sport of triathlon and in each race has always captured her excitement.

Viviana is an advocate for the Office of Race Relations. She’s originally from Chile and moved to US in 1995. In her native country she was involved in church planting, leadership development, and teaching. She likes to spend time with her four grandchildren and having long conversations with her daughters. Writing, reading, and taking long walks with her golden retriever is her definition of a good time. She loves history, a passion that developed together with her brother when they used to spend their summer vacations at the library.

Brenda Cuellar is currently serving with Frontera de Cristo as the U.S. Coordinator of the Migrant Resource on the US/MX border. Brenda was born in Maryland to immigrant parents and raised in Michigan where she became passionate about immigration and human rights.

Thea deGroot is a retired elementary and adult education teacher who worked in both Christian schools and in non-school settings such as public housing, First Nations resource centres, and some supply in the local jail. Thea and her husband Art are members of Redeemer Christian Reformed Church. They raised three daughters during the CRCs years of deliberation on ‘women in office.’ Two of their daughters now live in Winnipeg and Morden, Manitoba and one lives in Kitchener, Ontario where they are collectively raising seven of Art and Thea’s grandsons and one granddaughter. Thea also enjoys gardening, cooking, reading, keeping up with politics, and going for long walks.

Rose Dekker is the soon-to-be-retired Refugee Coordinator at World Renew. For the last decade she has encouraged congregations across Canada to sponsor refugees from overseas and help them settle into their communities. For the last three years she has been a co-chair of the Overseas Protection and Sponsorship working group of the Canadian Council for Refugees. Rose will join her husband in retirement and hopes to spend more time in Ottawa, Grand Rapids, and Columbia, Missouri, where her children and five grandchildren live. For fun, Rose plays her violin in a community orchestra.

Christina DeVries is currently residing in Hamilton, Ontario and working as an elementary school teacher on the Six Nations reserve in Ohsweken, Ontario. She also serves on the Canadian Aboriginal Ministries Committee (CAMC) of the Christian Reformed Church.

Calvin B. DeWitt is an environmental scientist in the Nelson Institute, University of Wisconsin-Madison and President of the Academy of Evangelical Scientists and Ethicists. He chaired the CRC’s Creation Stewardship Task Force that reported to Synod in 2012 and is author of Earthwise: A Guide to Hopeful Creation Care (Grand Rapids: FaithAlive Resources).

Jan Disselkoen attends First Hamilton CRC and worked for 30 years with World Renew in Sierra Leone, Niger, and as a member of the support team in the Burlington office. She is also a Christians Against Poverty debt coach.